In 1865, the Union Pacific Railroad secured funding to lay track from Council Bluffs Iowa westward, in the great hopes of completing a Transcontinental Railroad. At odds with the investors of the Central Pacific Railroad based in California, the Union Pacific's mastermind engineer, Thomas 'Doc' Durant would need all manner of men (and women) to complete it before the Central Pacific hedged out his profits and his rail. Foremen, linemen, day laborers, convicts, and all the enterprising camp followers from whores to saints, would be necessary to build the great beast that has now become known as Hell on Wheels.

(Based on the AMC television show "Hell on Wheels" with Anson Mount, Common, and Colm Meaney.)